Apple Of His Eye
by Dranatic-Snitch
Summary: He’d escaped a decaying world and tainted a promising young man with the kind of power that a human just wasn’t meant to wield. Amused by this thought he reached down and placed the already browning apple core onto Light's grave...


**Dranatic-Snitch: **Well, this is a contribution to my fellow conspirator/crazy friend PublicEnemyNo357's collection of drabbles and one-shots. The prompt I chose was "Apple"... a Death Note fic was begging to be written from that one XD

If you'd like to take part in this little challenge then visit:

_www . publicenemyno357 . deviantart . com / journal / 20073306 /_

(obviously, you need to remove the spaces) for all the rules and conditions (there aren't many).

Basically, this one-shot kinda deals with the relationship between Ryuk and Light, following Ryuk's thoughts as he visits Light's headstone for the first (and last) time.

Though it may suck, I await your judgement...

Please enjoy

* * *

_Prompt #18 – Apple_

_Rating – T (Use of the term 'pissed-off')_

_Warnings __–__ Aforementioned cursing & spoiler for Near's real name_

_Disclaimer: I Don't Own. Just Borrowing for My Twisted Little Puppet Theatre._

* * *

Light Yagami had been so…entertaining. If he was honest, Ryuk had gotten himself a little attached, which made it all the harder to kill the self-proclaimed "God" in the end. However, it was necessary; once the fun had dried up, there'd been nothing left to sustain Ryuk's amusement. Death Gods are notoriously impatient, and Ryuk had no interest in watching the young man slowly decay within four bleak walls. Where's the drama and tension, the pure entertainment factor, in that?

No, in his eyes, Ryuk had done the right thing. True, Light had been a pretty amusing guy to start with, all the bestowment of judgement, natural ingenuity and the thrill of him potentially being exposed as Kira at any given moment. But that weird kid, Nate River, had truly ruined his fun by cornering his source of amusement in that warehouse. Ryuk felt he didn't really have much of choice after that; Light's begging had been his downfall, obvious proof that he had nothing of interest to offer Ryuk.

Ryuk idly crushed the sheep skull between his taloned fingers, sighing dramatically. The barren Shinigami Realm showed no signs of improvement, despite the short-lived revolution Kira had inflicted upon the Human world. Unfortunately for Ryuk. Making his decision, he unfurled his wings and made his way to the desert and the portals to the Human world. He had something…fascinating to visit.

--

Whoever had organised Light's burial had obviously taken great pains to avoid any association with religious symbols; Yagami himself would have probably requested a cross (he always was a fairly pompous and self-deluded brat, committing grievous sins with one hand and a pen whilst proclaiming himself God with the other.) The headstone itself was merely a slab of engraved rock, and if he'd been expecting any vestiges of Light's character to be reflected in the black marble, the Shinigami was wholly disappointed. Even the inscribed words were utterly boring.

_YAGAMI LIGHT_

_28 February 1986 - 28 January 2010_

_Rest in Peace_

Ryuk very much doubted that Light was resting in any kind of 'Peace' where he himself had sent him. Considering Light's manic behaviour before Ryuk had written down his name, it was conceivable that Light was eternally cursing the Shinigami, L, Near and everyone else who'd ever crossed his path. Cursing in envy, whilst the Mu enveloped him. Ryuk laughed aloud at this thought and the image his imagination supplied, leaning down to trace the fissures in the compacted dirt heaped over his deeply-buried victim. Ryuk was glad in a way that he hadn't had to encounter an extremely pissed-off (and dead) Light. The guy had been scary enough before Ryuk had 'betrayed' him.

"Hyuk! Hyuk! Hyuk!"

The sinister echoes filled the graveyard, unheard by the nearby humans visiting the final resting place of their loved ones. Grieving people unaware that only feet away was the neglected grave of Kira, and kneeling by it, a Death God from the Shinigami Realm. Ryuk suspected that the news of Kira's identity had been kept secret, since Light's grave showed no signs of desecration or ill-respect. The desolate resting place simply lent to the impression that "Yagami Light" had no family or, at least, nobody who cared enough to leave flowers. 'In a way', he thought, 'that must be true.'

Sachiko and Sayu could hardly have been proud to learn that their beloved Light was a vigilante killer who was also inadvertently responsible for the death of his father.

Ryuk almost felt sorry for them. But not quite. He was in the business of killing humans for personal gain, of course.

Growing bored of simply kneeling and staring, he rose from the foreboding burial place and patted the marble stone almost fondly.

"Well, we had some good times, didn't we buddy?" Ryuk grinned eerily.

Fishing in his pouch, he pulled out a treat he'd been saving for this very occasion. Angling it towards the limited sunlight he had under the shadows of the willow tree, Ryuk conceded that many things on Earth, besides lifespan and human antics, were worth appreciating. Mouth drooling, he energetically ravished the glistening apple's blood-red, tender skin with his impossibly pointed teeth. As he ripped through the chunks of forbidden fruit he wondered what it felt like to fall, just like the unfortunate Light had in search of his 'shining utopia'. He imagined it would be interesting, at the very least. He'd have asked Light himself but…oops. Sniggering at his own joke, Ryuk came to the bitter centre of the apple and remembered something Light had told him long ago, "Don't forget to eat the core." Ryuk had always considered the core to be the worst part of the apple, so sour and brittle. Almost like the rotting, dead apples of his own realm, one of the very reasons why he dropped his Note in the first place. In search of a more exciting existence, he'd escaped a decaying world and tainted a promising young man with the kind of power that a human just wasn't meant to wield. The thought amused him greatly, and in the spur of the moment he reached down and placed the already browning apple core onto Light's grave.

"No hard feelings, eh Light?" Ryuk patted the stone with an air of simultaneous joviality and finality and propelled himself into the air with his withered black wings, disappearing into the grey, sky-consuming clouds without once looking back.

--

Hours had passed since Ryuk's departure; the sky was now dyed a deep blue-black, the occasional star glistening half-heartedly out of the vast depths busy ingesting the small sliver of moon. The tiny beams of moonlight picked out the details of various headstones, highlighting inscriptions of false righteousness, stolen scripture and counterfeit virtues. A small gust of breeze tossed a few crispy leaves into the cool, night air and the apple core fell sideways, rolling hesitantly away from Light Yagami's headstone. The shrivelled, entirely decomposed fruit could potentially be carried away by a crow to feed its young, or else continue to disintegrate into nothingness, nourishing the dirt below. Maybe a few Coltsfoot flowers would bloom in its place.

**The End**

* * *

**Dranatic-Snitch:**

So...

I don't have a clue about Japanese cemeteries or burial arrangements, so I just stuck with what I know: Gravestones (which makes me sound decidedly creepy...). To remedy the fact that I "Western-ised" Light's resting place, I made the inscription display his name in the Japanese way; Surname last. This is assuming that he was buried in his home country of Japan. However, when I write Light's name elsewhere in the fic, it's the other way around. This is 'cause I'm not Japanese and neither is the character of Ryuk (as far as I know, Shinigami don't technically have nationalities, though of course I may be wrong). So yeah, not a grammatical/continuity mistake on my part, I know what I was intending to do (even if nobody else knows what the Hell I'm doing) -

You can look upon Ryuk's 'attachment' to Light in whatever manner you wish, though romantic implications were not intended. Honestly...XD

I decided to be a bit obviously symbolic when it came to the apple. As we all know (or are about to find out) apples are heavily symbolic. According to information garnered from the internet, apples played a role in Germanic Pagan religious practices, such as burials, and have also appeared in various aspects of Greek mythology. Apples are also traditionally recognized (in Christianity) as the Forbidden Fruit in the Book of Genesis, which of course lead to the fall of mankind into sin. This is the fall Ryuk wonders about in my fic. So there you go, I research my tiny plot devices XP

Also, if you didn't know, flowers have specific meanings. In my attempt to be clever, I mentioned 'Coltsfoot'. This flower's meaning is along the lines of 'Justice' or 'Justice shall be done', which I felt was highly appropriate...

Feedback would be greatly appreciated (hint hint), thanks for reading!


End file.
